photo lesson at Scandi Kitchen: up close & personal to much deliciousness

If there is one thing a food blogger wants, it’s to take good photos. Oh I’m sorry, they want food, but right after food, it’s the good photos. This is because the majority of readers out there scan posts for the glorious food pØrn and maybe, just maybe they might read a paragraph or two, but really, our hopes are pinned on the photos because if you write as much crap as I do, no one reads the post.

Except my mum. Hi!

Having said that, there was some discussion in twitterverse about people who actually read blogs? I mean, isn’t that like saying you buy Playboy for the articles? I rest my case.

So in light of wanting to take stunning unadulterated food pØrn photos, I tagged along last week to an informal photo lesson hosted by Helen of a forkful of spaghetti and photographer Chris Windsor to learn a thing or two.

Or really, I went because the event was at Scandinavian Kitchen, one of my uber most favourite places in London.

Because I own a two year old point and shoot, there’s really very little I can control with my camera. It’s slightly frustrating, but don’t worry, a solution is on the horizon. I have my heart set on getting the new Canon s90, so hey guys, please feel free to donate to the Catty Needs To Take A Good Photo fund. It’s open to anyone, seriously.

Photo taking aside, we have got to talk about Scandi Kitchen. I’m like a sort of… ummm… a wanna be Scandinavian. The fact that I’ve managed to capture me a Finnish boyfriend should count towards something right? Although the Finns, technically they’re not part of Scandinavia but really, close enough, and the food all has the same delicious fresh wholesomeness to it, I mean, this stuff fed the vikings. YEH.

As part of the lesson, we were allowed to play with platters of smørrebrod, or open sandwiches. The Scandis are seriously creative with this stuff, topping their bread with the likes of smoked salmon, herring, meatballs, pate, roast beef, caviar and my favourite ~ beetroot and apple salad.

The smørrebrod are always presented beautifully with the tiniest of garnishes and I mean, it’s kind of ironic when you imagine these huge Scandinavians picking up their smørrebrod with their pinkies and devouring like, I dunno, 50 of them.

Living just around the corner from Scandi Kitchen, we’re there for lunch every few weeks (which is not nearly often enough) and we always take the opportunity to stock up on Scandi food. Not only do they serve great traditional fare, Scandi Kitchen is also the most well stocked Scandi deli in London, so for our homesick northern cousins (or wanna bes.. like me), this is the place to be.

Oh by the way, you’re wondering why there’s that photo of a hot dog. Well, Scandi Kitchen will be running a hot dog eating competition some time before Christmas… so we pre-empted the competition with a hot dog photo taking competition and that being utterly unsatisfying, yes, we also ate them.

3 Thoughts on “photo lesson at Scandi Kitchen: up close & personal to much deliciousness”

Hi, we love the Scandinavian Kitchen too. Have you been to the Nordic Bakery which is south of Beak Street in Soho? They also make great open sandwiches and have real rye bread. If you haven’t, you should check it out!

Did they also teach you
1) how not to feel overly self-conscious whilst taking photos
2) how to avoid getting spotted taking photos by waiters
3) how to remind your dining companions not to eat before photo is taken without being a total tw*t

Jamie: I actually have been there but I wasn’t impressed! I remember the bread being quite stale-ish.. and the toppings weren’t as scrumptious.

Mr Noodles: LOL well the tutor did actually touch on that! He said to have NO SHAME and take whatever photos we need, and take our time. Music to my ears 🙂 As for dining companions, I think you need to train them yourself. My bf for example is so well trained haha he KNOWS not to touch a thing until I’m done with photos otherwise there will be hell to pay 🙂